Piney Water
- Thread starter pineywoman
- Start date
was hiking last fall and a guy from the state was testing the water at Quaker Bridge. he said he had been doing it for 12 years. said they found no contaminants from road or sewage run off. i asked if it was safe to drink and he said fine, but that he would treat it. told him i use Polar Pure (iodine) because my filter clogs up in the pines. he explained that the filter was removing things that were not harmful, but too large to get through filter. also explained that much of the partials in the water are in a suspension not a solution.
and that is all i know about water in the pines
and that is all i know about water in the pines
A friend of mine has a lake on the back of his property; actually it was an old bog at one time that he dug out about 8 years ago. He was wondering why he could not get fish to live in it but there were many of fish in my lake (Indian Mills Lake). He had it stocked and the fish in time died off.
Well my theory was the PH was to low. There was no run off of topsoil or fertilizers from farmlands or lawns. A healthy lake needs rich bottom mud with a good PH. To shorten the story I tested most of the lakes in the area for Ph. Here is what I found.
Well my theory was the PH was to low. There was no run off of topsoil or fertilizers from farmlands or lawns. A healthy lake needs rich bottom mud with a good PH. To shorten the story I tested most of the lakes in the area for Ph. Here is what I found.
That is very interesting Don. Here in Bamber, one of the streams has no fish in the delta. I never catch anything on that side of the lake.
What do you use, a swimming pool test kit?
What do you use, a swimming pool test kit?
No, it was actually a nice kit the meter seemed consistent. My friend bought it for testing his lakes PH. I took each sample about 18 inches below the surface where possible in several places. That is as far as I could reach. Most of the readings for each location were within 2 or 3 point.
Bob,
You may be right. I don't know if it is pristine healthy or not but years ago we got a report from Burlington County saying Indian Mills Lakes was a healthy lake??? I hope everyone know what I mean.
Don
I know what you are saying...I'm just concerned about the tipping point that turns a pinelands lake/stream into something else.
Oak and cedar vegetation is very high in tannic acid,this would definitely add to the acidity of any surface water flowing across such vegetation.I hear pine needles are acidic as well.
I hate to mention this because it's kind of an urban legend about the pine barrens and those who have drank the warder without treating it first. You need to careful not to get beaver fever, a parasite. http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/giardiasis/fact_sheet.htm
I say this only because I had a couple of friends who used to spend a lot of time camping in the pines and enjoyed the natural taste of the warder so they didn't treat it. They swear that they got a bad case of beaver fever and have boiled the warder ever since. I've heard about this from others as well. Now I'm tempted to make a joke here about pineys and beaver fever but I don't want the site administrator to stop this thread.
I say this only because I had a couple of friends who used to spend a lot of time camping in the pines and enjoyed the natural taste of the warder so they didn't treat it. They swear that they got a bad case of beaver fever and have boiled the warder ever since. I've heard about this from others as well. Now I'm tempted to make a joke here about pineys and beaver fever but I don't want the site administrator to stop this thread.
I once read the statistic that the amount of water in the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system is enough to cover the entire state of NJ in a lake 10 feet deep (!)
The containment of the water in the sandy substrate comes from the fact that there are layers of clay and rock with lower porosity below that contain it. The geologic history of the outer coastal plain is fascinating. The sand was deposited over layers of clay and sedimentary rock, over the course of time when the sea levels rose and fell, and the ancient Hudson River rode over NJ.
My understanding is that the water is acidic because of the tannic acid from cedars and the decaying organic matter. Tannins give the cedar water its brown color (same as the brown color of tea. Green tea leaves have not matured and therefore do not have the tannins, where black tea leaves do).
I also understand that there are no naturally occurring lakes in the pinelands, and the hydrology of the streams and swamps in the pinelands is unique, in that the streams are places where the water in the aquifer is exposed on the surface of the ground.
The iron content has to do with the oxidation or reduction (I believe that both happen) of iron found naturally in the soil. The acidity of the water leaches the iron, and when dissolved it undergoes bacterial action to either gain or lose an electron, and it becomes iron oxide (chemically the same as rust), where it is deposited on the sides of streams, etc. This is where bog iron comes from. If you go north to the geologic region that they call the Piedmont, you will find that some of the shale is black and some is red. The 'red-bed' shale occurs because of iron oxide and a similar process when exposed to air. The black was formed underwater.
I may be remembering this incorrectly, but I want to say that the greatest threat to the aquifer is not pollution (because of the cleaning capacity of the aquifer and the sheer volume of the water), but is instead the threat of salt water intrusion. Not to say that pollution from nonpoint sources and illegal dumping etc don't damage the aquifer, but I seem to remember that in the area around Atlantic City there is some concern because of drawdown of the aquifer.
We really have to send out the bat-signal for Spung-man to come on here and lay down the knowledge, he's the man with geology.
Interesting data but dissolved oxygen (DO) is a big factor too especially in lakes
Isn't Lake Hopatcong the only natural lake in NJ?
Edit: Maybe not. There's a ton of other smaller lakes up in the mountains.
One other thing from an ecology perspective-two major factors that dictate the ecology of the pinelands are serotiny (fire ecology and adaptations) and the porosity and acidity of the soils. The sandy soils are more porous than clay, silt or rock, so there is not as much of an organic layer on top, nutrients are washed out, and metals are leached and washed away. Combine that with the acidity, and only plants that are adapted to harsher conditions can live here. An example of this are the carnivorous plants that live in the pinelands. They get the sun and CO2 that they need, as well as water, but don't get as much of the other macro and micronutrients that they need, so they digest insects for the nutrients (I think that magnesium and nitrogen are two major deficiencies).
As with all other forms of life, the flora and fauna either adapted to the conditions or went extinct, and the ecology of the region speaks of the adaptations to the harsher conditions. Interesting stuff!
As with all other forms of life, the flora and fauna either adapted to the conditions or went extinct, and the ecology of the region speaks of the adaptations to the harsher conditions. Interesting stuff!
I don't believe so.
It is said that all lakes are doomed eventually to be filled with sediment, but those at higher elevations will last longer than those at lower elevations, obviously because the eroded sediment is subject to gravity etc.
There were a few glacial lakes, like glacial lake Passaic, that have been backfilled with sediment. Passaic became Great Swamp.
There were other lakes that are north of the terminal moraine that were created in the last glacial period that I'm pretty sure still exist because of their elevation.
I am sure that Sunfish Pond is a natural glacial lake, and I'm thinking that there are others in the Northern region that are.
There are no natural lakes south of the terminal moraine where the glacial ice cap stopped moving south,unless of course you consider beaver ponds natural.
NJ Chile...it all goes back to that diagram that I believe Dog mentioned. If you look at the aquifer in the Atlantic City/Egg Harbor Area, you see the sand aquifer co-aligning with the Cohansey aquifer and would be absolutely correct in saying that salt intrusion is probably the leading concern and also due to rising sea levels. It makes sense. It is quite interesting that the Piney water is predominately from the Cohansey aquifer and no "natural lakes" have formed. Thanks for the AWESOME information. The aquifer is in essence, "the life of the pines." It's pretty rad. Yes, I said rad. It is Water, but us Piney folk call it Wooder.
You might like this page,USGS Groundwater Data for New Jersey.There is a lot of info to be found on this page you just have to dig around.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nj/nwis/gw/
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nj/nwis/gw/
A forward thinking study that would be beneficial to the Pineland waterways. An interesting study across the pond that should have U.S. interests is the UK MOPS2. It is a study which began in 2008 and will conclude next year that indicates that that field wetlands are a very effective means of protecting the environment, as the ponds intercept runoff, preventing sediment from reaching the waterways, trapping and storing carbon, and reducing concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous, improving water quality off site.
http://mops2.diffusepollution.info/about/
http://mops2.diffusepollution.info/about/